The Loner: Nils Sings Neil

Birds
Long May You Run
Flying On The Ground
I Am A Child
Only Love Can Break Your Heart
Harvest Moon
Like A Hurricane
The Loner
Don't Be Denied
World On A String
Mr. Soul
Winterlong
On The Way Home
Wonderin'
Don't Cry No Tears

Nils Lofgren and Neil Young have always had a special relationship. Nils joined Neil Young's band at age 17, playing piano on the album After the Gold Rush and appearing on his Tonight's the Night album. He's also toured several times with Neil. So when I saw on the Nils Lofgren e-mail digest that Nils was doing a solo acoustic CD of some of Neil's classic songs, I was overjoyed as I've been a fan of both Nils and Neil for a long, long time.

Nils sounds great, his voice is sharp. I love the piano and acoustic guitar and Nils excels at both here. Harvest Moon and Only Love Can Break Your Heart are perhaps my two favorites on the CD. Really mellow and relaxing. It's good to hear him preform these songs acoustic.

I've included a picture (click to enlarge it) of the inside cover of the CD as this tells you all about the recording. I received it in the mail Tuesday and this is all I've listened to this week. Just a beautifully done CD. I'm just bummed a bit that a couple of my favorite Neil Young songs After the Gold Rush and Already One wasn't included. I'm sure Nils has his reasons and it must have been agonizing for him to select only fifteen songs. Perhaps I'll ask this question on the e-mail digest. In the meantime, you can purchase the CD here.

Here's an interesting question about Neil I found from an interview with Nils by journalist Marshall Terrill

What is Neil Young’s particular brilliance?

Nils: It would have to be that he is as great a songwriter as there will ever be.

Everything else is a distant second. Neil’s a great musician, he’s very eccentric, eclectic and has a beautiful, haunting voice. But you know what? All of those things are a distant second to being an amazing, amazing songwriter. The same thing could be said about Bruce Springsteen. When you combine the words with the melody and the music, it’s a power that everything emanates from. They happen to be amazing singers and musicians, but if they weren’t, they couldn’t ruin those songs. They would be still be part of our emotional landscape and be just as powerful. You can’t hurt songs that good."